The Sonrise of Christmas...Again

Tuesday, January 08, 2013 Posted by Katie

Happy New Year my dear readers! Thank you so much for hanging with us at the Daily Fast Fuel. This year brought so much joy, and with it, the publication of our FIRST BOOK which you can check out HERE!

This week, as we are bringing out our "leftovers", I am heating up a plate of Christmas for you. It isn't because I am running late, but rather because I want to take the lead from a old colleague of mine from my youth ministry. He always...as in ALWAYS (all year long!)...greeted people with a cheerful "Merry Christmas to you and yours!" The first time I heard him say it, I thought it was charming. The second time I thought that maybe he was some sort of Dickens fan (because honestly, who talks like that?). Third time? That's the charm, right? I got it. Celebrate the dawn of hope. Every day.

So as you are putting away decorations and dragging your brittle trees to the curb, enjoy this reheated Daily Fast Fuel and remember this is not the end. It never is. With Christ, it is always the dawn of hope. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

(Originally posted 12/26/2011)

It had been a long night. Traveling can be exhausting. It can be especially so when you’re going great distances and your ankles are swelling from all the sitting. And the ninth month of pregnancy ain’t easy when you’re tired and just want to lay down already…but you have to go out of town…by donkey. Then there’s the aching…from pretty much everywhere…but especially from your head (because Joseph didn’t call ahead to the Hampton Inn) and your belly (because, well, it’s TIME.)

But into that dark night, a great light came into view. Angels streamed in from “heaven afar” just to get a glimpse of His tiny radiant face. The aching began to subside. Hope and possibility took its place. The warmth of dawn began to creep over the horizon and with it the light of a new day began to chase away all darkness.

Have you been having a long night? Feel like you’ve been trudging along without any comfy rest stops up ahead? The aches of this world got you down? The darkness doesn’t have to last forever, you know. There is a Great Light just waiting for you to make a place for Him. Is there room in your heart for new life?

If you haven’t already, consider a “yes” my friends. For if you do, as His Light begins to dawn in your life, darkness will be chased away, hope and possibility will take the place of your aching, and even angels from “heaven afar” will rejoice at the birth of Christ – in you.

Merry Christmas.

“Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.”